Will having U.S. citizen children prevent deportation of undocumented immigrant?

Question:

Children might be a factor that's weighed if deportation (removal) proceedings are begun.

My husband and I came to the U.S. from Mexico illegally, by
crossing the border, and we have been living here for five years. We both work
doing housekeeping, gardening, and other temporary jobs. We do not feel ready
to start a family right now, but our friends tell us over and over that if we have a
baby, it will be a U.S. citizen, and so immigration will not deport us. Is that
true?

Answer:

The part about a baby who is born in the U.S. being a U.S.
citizen is true. As for the rest of the advice that you’re receiving, it is not
quite that simple.

Another thing that your friends might have heard of is a
U.S. government policy known as “prosecutorial discretion.” The idea is that,
because U.S. immigration enforcement authorities (“ICE”) cannot deport
everyone, they should concentrate their efforts on high priority cases such as
criminals – and drop the cases of people with many ties to the United States, including
family. By granting "prosecutorial discretion," they don't give you a green card or anything like it, but they do promise not to deport you for the present.

If you had U.S. citizen children, that would indeed be a tie
to the United States that might make you more likely to receive prosecutorial
discretion if you were arrested by ICE. But so is your long stay and positive
work history. So having children just for this purpose seems like an extreme
measure. (Not to mention the fact that ICE is notoriously inconsistent in
applying this policy, and sometimes deports people whom you’d think would be
left alone under this policy.)